Tesla stock is soaring as the company hustles to ramp production, bring the Model 3 to market, rev up its Gigafactory and develop its solar roof. That's a lot of plates to keep spinning, and the news does not seem to be slowing down.
Here are some recent dramatic moves from Tesla and Chairman Musk.
Tesla stock hit a record high and is currently at $298.52, up 7 percent. That brings Tesla's market capitalization to $48.5 billion, edging Ford Motors at $45.1 billion and bringing the company within reach of General Motors' market cap of $51.1 billion and Honda's $53.3 billion. Detroit car builders' stocks traded down after U.S. sales missed estimates last month. The Wall Street Journal notes that "Tesla has overtaken Ford in investor value, despite being unprofitable and deeply indebted."
Tesla's market-cap milestone occurs after better-than-anticipated quarterly vehicle deliveries were announced on the weekend. Tesla delivered approximately 25,100 vehicles (above consensus estimates of 24,000), adding confidence that the firm can meet delivery guidance for the first half. That's a 69 percent increase over the first quarter of 2016.
Equity analyst firm Baird believes that shares "will move higher."
Elon Musk continues to sound the tocsin when it comes to artificial intelligence. According to a feature in Vanity Fair, Musk's investment in Google-acquired DeepMind was not about investment returns but about insight: 'It gave me more visibility into the rate at which things were improving, and I think they’re really improving at an accelerating rate, far faster than people realize. Mostly because in everyday life you don’t see robots walking around. Maybe your Roomba or something. But Roombas aren’t going to take over the world," said Musk.
Musk said Google could have good intentions but still “produce something evil by accident”-- including, say, “a fleet of artificial intelligence-enhanced robots capable of destroying mankind.”
We'll need low-cost spacecraft to escape our robot overlords, and Musk has just the thing.
Musk's SpaceX launched a commercial satellite last week using a reused Falcon booster that did its job and then landed on an ocean platform. According to a report in Florida Today: "Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of Luxembourg-based SES, whose satellite reached orbit Thursday, said SpaceX had the launch industry “shaking in its boots” several years ago when it showed Falcon rockets could launch communications satellites to high orbits.
“I think it’s shaking now,” he said Thursday. “I really do.”
Musk was quoted as saying, "It means that humanity can become a space-faring civilization and be out there among stars.”